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January/February 2001
Depleted uranium
Western Europe is in an uproar over the mounting death toll from "Balkan
syndrome." Fifteen soldiers who served as peacekeepers in Kosova and
Bosnia-where more than 40,000 rounds of U.S. munitions containing depleted
uranium were fired-have died of leukemia, and thousands more suffer from a
variety of disorders similar to the Gulf War syndrome.
The U.S. and Britain shot down their NATO allies' demands for a moratorium
on use of the radioactive ammunition. They proclaimed that depleted uranium
never hurt anyone-aside from those who were blown to bits or burned alive
inside tanks and buildings whose walls were vaporized by uranium-tipped
shells.
Experts were trotted out to "prove" that it was "biologically impossible"
for depleted uranium to cause leukemia. This claim went up in smoke when a
UN study found eight of 11 sites tested in Kosova to be "considerably
contaminated," and emitting beta radiation. Unlike the alpha radiation
given off by uranium 238-the only radioactive substance the experts assumed
was in the munitions-beta particles can penetrate bones, causing leukemia.
The UN study-which was delayed 18 months by NATO non-cooperation and whose
full results will not be known until March-also found traces of uranium
236, which is far more hazardous than U-238. Soon the Pentagon was forced
to admit that plutonium, which can kill even in minute amounts, and other
highly dangerous elements were found in the supposedly depleted uranium.
The Pentagon knew this a year ago and never warned its allies, or the
public, until now!
So great is the public outrage that after the NATO cover-up several
European countries embarked on their own studies of the sweeping health
problems of their former peacekeepers, and the European Parliament called
for a halt in the use of depleted uranium munitions. Britain even had to
reverse its refusal to screen its soldiers for medical problems.
Still, what about the effects on people who live in the bombed areas of
Bosnia and other countries? A UN study last May concluded that Kosova
groundwater may be so contaminated as to be unfit for drinking. Children
and adults have unwittingly collected bits of radioactive shells, and dairy
cows graze in contaminated areas.
And what about Iraq, where radioactive debris from the 1991 Gulf War still
contaminates the land and water? Doctors there report a massive increase in
leukemia, which they attribute to depleted uranium. The U.S.-led embargo
denies Iraq the medicine to treat the illness. Also, U-236 has been found
in the urine and bone tissue of some Gulf War veterans. And just as the
military tried to deny there even is a Gulf War syndrome, there is not one
word, much less a study, of what is happening to workers who produce, pack
and load these shells.
Capitalism's anti-human nature is revealed even in its technological
advances, creating weapons that keep killing a decade after the shooting
stops.
-Franklin Dmitryev
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